Automatic stoker.



H. cLoUsToN. AUTOMATIC STOKBR. APPLICATION FILED HARZB, 1908.

908,747. Patented Jan.5,19o9.

Iig, j 17%?2 w www 56W?? Mf- M/ .m gli UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERBERT CLOUSTON, OF ANTLER, NORTH DAKOTA.

AUTOMATIC sToKER.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT CLoUsToN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Antler, in the county of Bottineau and State of NorthDakota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in AutomaticStokers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object to provide an improved automatic Stoker,and more particularly it has for its object to provide an improved strawfeeding device for automatically feeding to stoves or furnaces smallbales of straw.

To the above ends the invention consists of the novel devices andcombinations of devices hereinafter described and delined in the claims.

In'many partsof the country, and especially in the rural districts ofthe northwestern States, wood and coal are scarce, while there is agreat abundance of straw which usually goes to waste, being frequentlyburned in the pile to get rid thereof. Straw, when pressed into bundles,makes a very good fuel but requires almost continuous feeding into astove or furnace, and hence, when this is done by hand, requires anobjectionable amount of personal attention. v

My invention, as hereinafter described and as illustrated in thedrawings, is especially designed to intermittently and automaticallyfeed to a stove or furnace comparatively small well compacted bundles ofstraw.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate the invention, likecharacters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings, Figure l is a view in front elevation,showing my improved stoker or automatic straw feeding device, some partsbeing broken away. Fig. 2 shows the stoker in side elevation and shows,in section, a portion of a stove or furnace into which the straw isbeing fed. Fig.

3 is a plan view of the parts shown in Fig. 2,.

some parts being broken away and Fig. 4 is a detail in enlarged section,taken on the line of Fig. 2.

The numeral 1 indicates an endless verti- Specication of Letters Patent.

Application led March 28, 1908.

Patented Jan. 5, 1909.

Serial No. 423,798.

cally elongated casing, shown as supported by feet 2. The vertical legportions of this casing 1 are rectangular in cross section and the upperand lower portions thereof are approximately semi-circular. The sideplates of the casing l are extended to form bearings for short upper andlower shafts 3 and 4 that are located, respectively, at the axes of theupper and lower semi-circular portions of the said casing. I/Vithin thecasing the shafts 3 and 4 are provided with pulleys 5 over which runs anendless belt 6. If desired, sprockets may be substituted for the pulleys5 and sprocket chains for the belt 6 and, so far as this invention isconcerned, it will be understood that this suggested construction wouldbe the equivalent of that shown. At suitable intervals, the belt 6 isprovidedwith projecting shelves or flanges 7.

The straw, which is compressed into small, tightly compacted bales Z,are placed in the open-ended rectangular metallic holders 8 which, attheir' outer faces, have their edges spaced apart to afford clearancepassages 8a. These holders, loaded with straw, are placed within thecasing between the shelves 7 of the belt 6 and by the said shelves andthe walls of the said casing are held in position and are adapted to beintermittently moved in the direction of the arrows marked on Fig. l. Topermit of the insertion of the filled holders and the removal of theemptied holders, the casing 1 is provided, as shown, in its front plate,with a hinged door 9. This door 9 may, when desired, be placed in therear plate of the said casing, or it might be omitted andv a simpleopening provided.

On one end of the upper shaft S'is a star wheel 1() which, as shown, isarranged to be yieldingly held in whatever position it may be set, by aleaf spring l1, one end of which is secured to the casing 1. This starwheel is adapted to be intermittently moved by one or more arms ortappets 12 carried by a short shaft 13 mounted in suitable bearings onthe casing l and provided, at its upper end, with a bevel gear 14. Thebevel gear 14 meshes with a pinion 15 carried by the upper end of avertical shaft 16 mounted in suitable bearings on the casing 1 and, inturn, provided with a bevel pinion 1'7 at its lower end and just abovesaid pinion with a sprocket 18.

The pinion 17 meshes with a bevel gear 19 l and pulleys 5 to impart astep of movement that is loosely mounted on a horizontal shaft 20,mounted in suitable bearings on the casing 1. On the shaft 20, adjacentto the gear 19,-is a ratchet wheel 21 that is engaged by aspring-pressed driving pawl 22 carried by the said gear. A coiled motorspring 23 is attached, at its inner end, to the said shaft 20 and, atits outer end, to an inclosing springbox 24 that is secured to thecasing 1. This motor spring 23 exerts a force which, through the pawl 22and ratchet wheel 21, tends to rotate the shaft 20 in the direction ofthe arrow marked on Fig. 4. At one end, said shaft 20 is also providedwith an operating crank 25. Y

A sprocket chain 26 runs overthe sprocket 18 and over an alined sprocket27 mounted in suitable bearings 28 on the casing 1. This sprocket chain26 has an ejecting tooth 29 that is adapted to work through a transverseslot 30 in the casing 1 and through the clearance passage 8a of theholder 8 that is positioned in horizontal line therewith. This tooth isthus brought into engagement with one end of the alined straw bale Z andoperates under the force of the motor spring 23 to force the said baleendwise out of its holder, which holder is then alined with a deliveryspout 31 secured to what is designated as the rear plate of thecasing 1.This delivery chute 31 is rectangularin cross section and is of suchsize that while it will admit the bale Z it will not admit its holder 8.By the spout 31 the ejected bail is delivered through the receiving doorof the stove or furnace 32 and into a skeleton or spider-like fuel rackor holder 33 that is secured within the fire-box of the said stove orfurnace. This skeleton holder 33 acts as a stop to limit the inwardmovement of the delivered bale.

The motor s ring 23 is adapted to be wound up by taliing hold of thecrank 25 and rotating the shaft 20 in a direction reverse from thedirection of the arrow marked on Fig. 4, under which movement the gear19 and parts driven therefrom remain stationary. As the bale deliveredinto the skeleton ho der 33 burns away and the ashes drop therefrom, thesaid bale will be forced farther and farther into the fire-box until itis nearly burned up, whereupon the ejecting finger 29, being released,the motor s ring will move the chain 26 until the said inger is carriedback to its starting point, to-wit, into engagement with the outer endof a newly positioned bale, which latter was brought into position whilethe said finger was making its return movement. More definitely stated,the movement of the shaft 16 and connected parts required to impart thereturn movement to the said ejecting finger, operates through the pinion15, bevel gear 14, shaft 13, tappet 12, star wheel 10 to the belt 6,sufficient to bring the next lower loaded holder 8 into line with thedelivery spout 31.

This automatic stoker or feeding device, it will therefore ybeunderstood, is completely automatic in its action. When all of theholders 8 are loaded with straw bundles or bales, sufficient fuel willbe provided to run a stove or furnace for a considerable length of time.Furthermore, the complete stoker or feeding device is of comparativelysmall cost and may be readily applied to almost any kind of stove,furnace or fire-box. For convenience the term stove is used in theclaims in a sense broad enough to include an ordinary stove, a furnace,a boiler fire-box or similar fuel burning device. hile especiallydesignated for use to feed straw bales or bundles into such stoves, itmay, nevertheless, be used for supplying fuel in other form. Tt might,for instance, be well adapted toautomatically sulpply to a stovebriquets made from peat or ignite.

What I claim is:

1. In an automatic stoker, the combination with a casing rovided with adelivery opening, of an end ess fuel carrier working therein, and havinga forward feed movement, a multiplicity of independently removable fuelholders arranged to be fed to the delivery opening by said carrier, afuel ejector, an endless support carrying said ejector, a motor, drivingconnections from said motor to said endless fuel carrier and to theendless ejector' support, arranged to impart a step of intermittentmovement to the former while the latter is given its return movement,substantially as described.

2. 1n an automatic stoker, the combination with an endless casing, anendless fuel belt and pulleys or wheels for guiding the same, mounted insaid casing, of a multiplicity of removable fuel holders adapted to olda fuel parcel and detachably carried by said belt, said fuel holdershaving open ends and clearance passages in their outer sides, an endlesssupport provided with an ejecting finger adapted to engage a parcel offuel and to move through the clearance passage of the holder containingthe same, to force the parcel out of said holder, a motor spring, adrive from said motor spring to said belt and to the endless support forthe ejector, arranged to move said belt a step forward while the ejectoris given the return movement in its cycle, and means for winding saidmotor spring, substantially as described.

3. The combination with a stove having a fuel entrance passage and askeleton fuel rack extending inward from said passage, of an automaticstoker comprising an endless fuel carrier arranged to loosely hold amultiplicity of fuel parcels, means for intermittentlj)T moving saidcarrier to successively position the fuel parcels in alineinent With theentrance passage and rack of said stove,

In testiinonT whereof I afx my signature 1n presence of tWo Witnesses.

and a yieldingly and automatically driven HERBERT CLOUSTON 5 ejectoroperative to force the positioned fuel Witnesses:

parcel into the rack of said stove7 substan- J. F. COOK, tially asdescribed. 1 H. W. HUIDE.

